Susan C. Li
2025 HEAR US Awardee
Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Class of 2025
Susan C. Li is a New York based Canadian musical theatre writer/composer, novelist and playwright completing her MFA in Musical Theatre Writing at NYU, Tisch. She has written for numerous genres and enjoys exploring new blends of mediums/styles. While procrastinating, she enjoys splurging on theatre and restaurants, reading and attempting to golf.
Project
阴阳师 (Yin Yang Shi)
Def. 阴阳师 (Yin Yang Shi): an experienced practitioner of the supernatural who keeps the balance between light and darkness, and who treads between the world of man and the world of spirits.
阴阳师 (Yin Yang Shi) is an Asian folklore-inspired supernatural coming of age musical, featuring a blend of Chinese folk and western classical music. When disaster strikes, MoHua, a young apprentice 阴阳师, finds herself separated from her Teacher and stranded in unfamiliar lands. She must journey across the vast lands of Ancient China alone to find her way back home, and along the way, she’s drawn into a series of mysteries that will challenge not only her ability and resolve, but her very humanity.
Employing Eastern storytelling techniques and written for the Western format of musical theatre, 阴阳师 seeks to explore the intersection of culture and mediums. This is similarly reflected in the music, which is written for an orchestra comprising of both western and traditional Chinese instruments. 阴阳师 presents an authentic and intimate delve into Chinese culture while remaining accessible to the Western audience, and will engage with universal themes such as love (both familial and platonic), loss/grief, historical gender roles, life and death, what it means to be human, and our relationship with the wider world we live in.
